Swallow DorettiCars and Owners

Chassis UID 2041Terry Moore

The Arcade Card

Swallow Doretti acade cards appear occasionally on internet auction sites. The cards are the same size as
a large postcard 5¼ x 3¼ inches (135mm x 85mm), with a picture on one side and no printing on back.

The picture on the arcade card is of a prototype Swallow Doretti and seated in the car is Terry Moore who also
promoted the Triumph TR2, (as seen in the picture on the left), which seems to have been taken at the same
promotional photo shoot. There was also a press release, published in the December 13th 1953 edition of the now
defunct Los Angeles Examiner, to publicise the upcoming 'Cal Sales' launch of the Swallow Doretti and the Triumph
TR2 at the Ambassador Hotel on January 6th to 10th 1954.
It's probable that Dorothy Deen had the American product launch, press release and magazine road tests co-ordinated
and it was her choice of celebrities that typified her exceptional promotional work. Subsequently a very positive
road-test of a Swallow Doretti, carried out by Walt Woron, appeared in the September 15th 1954 issue of Motor Trend.

Terry Moore was born January 7th 1929, in Glendale, California, as Helen Luella Koford. She worked as a child model
before making her film debut in 1940 and took Terry Moore as her name in 1948. She worked steadily in films through
the 1950s and was nominated for best supporting actress in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) and Peyton Place (1957),
but by the 1960s her career had faltered and she had began to appear less frequently in films.
After the 1960s, Moore semi retired from acting, only completing two films in the 1970s, though by the 1980s her
career had resumed with minor roles on television and in low-budget B-movies. She is still active, having last
appeared in Mansions of Blood (2014).

Terry Moore was famous for her relationship with Howard Hughes, having lived with him for several years.
She claims they were married, but no proof was ever forthcoming. After Howard Hughes died, she claimed that the
pair had secretly married on a yacht in international waters off the coast of Mexico in 1949 and never divorced.
Despite the fact that Moore married two other men while she was still "married" to Hughes, his estate paid her an
undisclosed settlement in 1984.

November 14th 2013
I was contacted by Rich Pandolfi who said he had purchased a Doretti belonging to Terry Moore, from a friend of hers
in the mid-50's.
Rich went on to say, "I raced it a few times but was not very reliable. In fact I literally rebuilt almost every
assembly with my dad as I used it and raced it. The car was destroyed by a drunk who hit it in a snow storm when it
was parked in front of my home. I cannot remember the exact year but it was about 1959. It looked great in that I
had about twenty coats of clear lacquer over a metallic blue base coat. Beautiful looking but not up to the
standards of today's cars."
. . Rich Pandolfi

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